Azure Hargrove
Backstory Current Happenings Relationships Terra Tougard Viktoriya Jennings luvr <3 Luka Delamare Headcanons Personality he is so dumb Combat Study: Strengths and Weaknesses Having been born in an outlying district, Azure Hargrove has been described as nothing less than a mystery in terms of fighting abilities. Few know how he squired such a set of skills which allowed him to easily kill thirteen tributes in his arena at the young age of seventeen, simply because few bothered to ask. Due to his intimidating reputation along with his body count, the question isn’t one anyone would be eager to ask. From the moment he learned to walk, the child could be found trotting around after his father as he worked twelve hour shifts cutting down trees. Such a small boy being found in the field wasn’t exactly normal, and yet his father insisted on Azure’s daily attendance, telling him he’d need to observe and eventually learn how to properly wield an axe in order to begin earning his keep. It was no secret that the Hargroves were among some of the least fortunate families in District Seven, this fact being something Azure figured out the moment he began to grasp the concept of language. Throughout the following years he learned the trade of a lumberjack through watching his father along with the other workers, many of whom became fond enough of the boy to begin teaching him basic skills with the various tools they used in the field (primarily an axe and a few different types of knives). After the abrupt disappearance, or rather departure of Robin Hargrove, Azure took it upon himself to begin providing for his family which now consisted of a mother in poor health as well as two younger siblings. Only seven years old, he had no other ideas other than to return to the fields his father once worked in and beg for any form of a job. After hours of refusing to leave without a job Azure was granted the most demeaning and minimal position they could offer him, of carrying logs to and from the truck on which they’d be loaded. Through months of performing this task, the child began to build muscle extremely quickly. By the age of eight he’d begun training with an axe, leading to a sheer mastery of the weapon by the time he entered his arena at seventeen. The first time Azure ever had to fight for his life was two weeks after Robin left. A fight might not be the right word to describe the situation, as it was more or less a brutal beating. Without any source of income, the Hargrove family had been living off scraps once every two days for the past fortnight, when Azure finally began resorting to theft. As he’d tried to run from the store, a livid baker had caught the child attempting to steal his goods. By the time he was through with him, Azure lay bloodied on the ground still clutching at the single loaf of slightly burnt bread he’d taken. Without any other options, he’d picked himself up along with his prize and stumbled home to nurse his injuries. This confrontation was the first of many the young boy had to endure and though each beating he endured was nothing less than utter agony, as people kept swinging at him he began learning to expect where the punches would fly and began fighting back. By the age of thirteen, Azure was more than capable of besting opponents twice his size due to his extensive background of getting into various street fights. Along with the skills he’d developed through constantly happening upon conflict, the boy took to schooling himself in the evenings and working ten hour days in the field. By the time he was reaped, Azure’s knowledge of combat far surpassed any other tribute from an outlying district and even matched the infamous careers who’d been training for the games their entire lives. For the first time in his life, he received official training which caused his skills to skyrocket despite it only having been for a few days. After entering the arena, the boy easily bested and killed nine tributes within two and a half weeks. The final showdown between Azure Hargrove and Talia Fiammetta, an eighteen year old volunteer from District Two, was anything but easy and went down in Hunger Games history as the most exciting confrontation according to Caesar Flickerman. After being at each other’s throats for the better part of two hours, the two of them were down to their bare hands having already disarmed each other. Covered in her blood as well as his own, Azure managed to overpower her by smashing her head into he ground repeatedly and finishing the job through manual strangulation. As a victor Azure found himself constantly plagued by nightmares and flashbacks which he dealt with by channeling his energy into physical activities, the most common of which became training. After the events of his victory tour, he received an unrefutable offer from President Snow. According to the President, he was to live in the Capitol for a minimum of seven months out of every year, to “keep him relevant.” In truth, they both knew he’d decided Azure needed to be watched. Without much else to do, the victor spent excessive amounts of time training with various people, including Viktoriya Jennings. Expected to take over Blight’s role as a mentor, the now eighteen year old boy worked constantly to keep himself in prime condition, hoping to give his future tributes a fighting chance by having a decent trainer. As far as weaknesses, Azure certainly has some. He’s by no means unbeatable, in fact there’s a fair few ways to best him. Despite the exposure to fighting and violence that he had growing up, Azure lacks the discipline and strategic abilities as someone who had been trained in one of the notorious career academies. His fighting style does not include the same timing or grace as anyone who’d spent their whole life training to kill. His official training did not begin until the age of seventeen, so while he has over nineteen years of fighting experience, he only has ten years of teaching by professionals. Secondly, he’s far from an expert when it comes to guns. Before joining the rebellion, he’d never even held a gun let alone fired one. As a victor who’d been marked as someone who needed watching, President Snow actually issued an order which ensured Azure would never be given the opportunity to use one of the weapons. After he arrived in Thirteen, he began gun training with Cassian who was quickly amused by his lack of knowledge in this area. The first time Azure was handed a gun, he held it upside down and stated firmly “I don’t believe in guns.” Throughout all the time he spent training, he developed a good aim and is now capable of hitting a bullseye but still isn’t always reliable when it comes to shooting swiftly moving targets. Aside from an axe and knives, Azure has little practice with other weapons. Finally, his most fatal flaw which exposes him to the largest amount of danger is his lack of regard for his own personal safety. Throughout his life, Azure has survived a huge number of situations that should’ve resulted in his death (poverty, near starvation, the hunger games, explosions, torture, being held hostage etc.). The fact that he made it through these trials causes him to have a sense of blind faith that he’ll somehow manage to survive whatever life throws at him — a dangerous way to think, particularly in the midst of a war. Logically, he knows he’s nowhere near invincible, however subconsciously Azure absolutely views himself as a survivor: one who will be able to make it through almost anything. This reckless thinking leads to him placing himself in a huge amount of dangerous situations. Killed Vik Jennings with his bare hands at age 1. Category:Characters